My problem with Blizzard...

[Lawlhat]

I've enjoyed their RTS games some, but never really got pulled into Diablo or WoW because the main drive to play (loot) is not especially appealing to me. I'm always interested to see what people that DO like that type of game have to say about it though. Thanks for the post OP.

 

[Mortons4ck]

That's why I stick with Starcraft BW, Diablo 2, and that new-fangled Warcraft 3. No problems here.

 

[Darkmantle]

And you know what's more cliched than SC2's dialogue, the argument that SC2 had cliched dialogue, it's such a cop out and never backed up in the slightest.

How is it a cop out? Here is some back up. Its a western now. SC1 had Jimmy being a Marshal and being on a backwater planet but it still was futurey. Now SC world is a western, with jukeboxes hardwired into the ship and people dressed like extras from Firefly. Why does he have a six shooter with one bullet in it why? It was never in the game before that cut scene. Why was it important. It just seemed a silly thing to throw in and not explain.

a lot of the disconnect you're feeling comes from blizzard calling the books canon and using the books canon in game, so some things feel unexplained, but are fleshed out in other mediums. not for or against, just saying.


although I love the Sc2 story, and think people are way too hard on it for no reason

 

[Warachia]

You don't raid for gear, you raid for the thrill of finally downing a boss and for the enjoyment being in the company of people you like. But fine, vanilla WoW and Cataclysm are shit and MMOs aren't for everyone, so I won't go any further on that game.

WoL had one fewer campaign mission than the original had, plus challenges, achievements and an engine capable of almost anything the modding community can imagine. When I played SC1, I couldn't care less about any of the races because I only had them for 10 or so short missions with a dialogue screen in between. In SC2, I grew very attached to the all of the characters on the Hyperion.

And you know what's more cliched than SC2's dialogue, the argument that SC2 had cliched dialogue, it's such a cop out and never backed up in the slightest.

I'm surprised the OP didn't complain that he can't play Diablo 3 on the bus, as well. Because that argument has been beaten to death about just as much.

Quit your nitpicking and enjoy an exceptional game, sure it might not be as good as you think SC1 was, but it's still better and more polished than a vast majority of the shit that gets put out there these days.

I disagree, you can't bring up the argument that someone made, then dismiss it simply because other people have made it as well, like Diablo 3, people say "Just play it at home", whereas I can't because I DON'T have a stable internet connection. It's not nitpicking as well if he has a problem of one game being split apart just for the company to make money, that would be like me saying "don't reply to this comment, you're just nitpicking."

As for the original poster, welcome to Mars, where you realized the companies you used to love aren't that good any more. Next up, why Bethesda is a bad studio, and why Nintendo should not get a free pass on everything they make.

 

[Sandytimeman]

I agree with the SC2 thing.
"We can't fit all on one Disc!"

"By the way, did we mention the campaign is 4/5ths filler crap that has nothing to do with the main story?"

I...

I'm so glad I'm not into that whole internet justice thing anymore. This would have killed my night.

It wasn't a great game (I don't really get that feeling from anything anymore), but 4/5ths of it being "filler crap" is pretty ambitious commentary. Makes it sound like you never played the original.

It's as big as Starcraft 1. The expansion will probably be as big or bigger than Starcraft: Brood Wars.

Then they'll have a 3rd expansion.

Something like 10 years and they've managed to add ONE expansion to the formula. Feels like they should be given a medal, frankly.

They didn't string along half the characters as DLC either.

Buuuuut...not a big deal. The game is out, the past won't change, and a couple random smucks on the Escapist aren't going to make them suddenly change.

Of course I played the original
I waited 4 fucking hours outside the store to get the collectors edition. I blitzed the story, in two sessions sleeping 3 hours in between because I WAITED 12 DAMN YEARS TO PLAY IT.

And god damn, it let me down.

Not that I think you need to feel the same. If you liked it I'm happy for you, but I was just severely disappointed.

Personally I loved the story and I am waiting with bated breath for the next two collector's editions to come out.

It had a good story imo and I loved all the extras in between campaigns. Its like a combination of my two favorite genres. Point and Click Adventures and RTS.

 

[Maveroid]

I should contribute something more valuable to this conversation, but 'sadly' I have the absolute same opinion about Blizzard as you do, so there is not much to discuss.

Just to make you more angry, though... I am sure that Diablo 3 will have expensive DLC; very expensive, I bet. And if its not very expensive, it WILL be when you have to buy ALL of it to keep up with the other players. And guess what, it is also an MMORPG when you play it online, so there is even more potential for even more content for even more money! Hooray.

Hey hey, guess what!? Warcraft 4 might actually come out some day! Haha, wait, who am I kidding? How many players are longing for Warcraft 4? Oh, thats right, a gazillion! Great great, so if they make the game and sell it for $60, Blizzard will have tons of money!

"Aww... Tons of money is not enough... How many playable races did Warcraft 3 have again? Undead...Human... Night elves...Wait, that's THREE races.... So, if we just rewrite the story and make it a bit longer and stuff it with a lot of horrible filler in, we can actually... We could... OMG!!!
Hey guys, how would you like it if we split up Warcraft 4 into three parts?!?!?! Imagine how much money that will bring us! Look at those idiots that bought Starcraft 2, they would do that again!!!!

Haha, good thing we have such a stupid fanbase that enjoyed our game for its artistic value and technical standpoint back in the day. Remember how they praised us and said we were the best company ever because we were so different back then? Good thing that's over, because more money is more important than anything.."


Honestly though, I can't blame them. The fanbase is satisfied even after they sold Starcraft 2 Part 1 for $60. Why not do it then?
Now, if everyone was NOT satisfied, theeeen maybe Blizzard would think about it.... And decide to do it again.

 

[fenrizz]

First off to the OP.
I really enjoyed that post, it was well written and I agree on many a point.

I need to correct you on a few things.

Why slap a full price on a game that's only 1/3 of a greater whole?

Because that "1/3" is a whole in and of itself. Like you mentioned previously from people who've actually played Starcraft 2, it is comparable to Starcraft 1 in length. (edit: And even offers some things that Starcraft 1 didn't)

A game that, were it made a decade before, would have been sold as a completed product?

Tying into the previous statement, no, it wouldn't have been. At best, they would have gutted everything they wanted to do with the series in order to make it fit into one game.

What would be wrong with releasing a single game with multipe discs?

In this case, much more time. The race campaigns are full length games. It makes no sense to wait several more years just so they can release one massive game all at once as opposed to splitting it up into more managable chunks and releasing those. Also, feed back on the first game allows them to polish the next ones. (Edit: Polish was probably the wrong word, since it's already pretty polished. It'd be more accurate to say it would allow them to use feedback to make the next ones even better by adding features people want and taking away those that people aren't enjoying)

To me, the move to break up a game that fans of the series had been waiting over a decade for and sell it to them in three $60 chunks was just the absolute epitomy of greed.

To date, Blizzard has said they are pricing the next two Starcraft games as expansions. They will not be $60. Assuming they maintain the length of campaign, which I see no reason they wouldn't, you'll actually get more in these "expansions" then you typically would get from an expansion like Brood War.

This is also where I disagree with the OP.

I never saw Blizz as greedy for this.
They were giving us the game faster, and not unreasonably priced compared to other titles.

 

[Warachia]

And you know what's more cliched than SC2's dialogue, the argument that SC2 had cliched dialogue, it's such a cop out and never backed up in the slightest.

How is it a cop out? Here is some back up. Its a western now. SC1 had Jimmy being a Marshal and being on a backwater planet but it still was futurey. Now SC world is a western, with jukeboxes hardwired into the ship and people dressed like extras from Firefly. Why does he have a six shooter with one bullet in it why? It was never in the game before that cut scene. Why was it important. It just seemed a silly thing to throw in and not explain.

a lot of the disconnect you're feeling comes from blizzard calling the books canon and using the books canon in game, so some things feel unexplained, but are fleshed out in other mediums. not for or against, just saying.


although I love the Sc2 story, and think people are way too hard on it for no reason

But using the stuff from the books is a TERRIBLE thing to do for several reasons, and none of them have to do with a bad story:

People won't know what you are talking about because the majority of the people playing the game don't care about the books and will miss out on a lot. Writers on the books most likely won't be the writers in the game, so the story can be wildly inconsistent with some writers setting a character up the whole time to have a character arc that never happens. Sometimes a book writer will write something in that the game writer doesn't like, but now they're forced to stick with it unless you do a retcon which will only piss people off who are trying to get the full story. Maybe some writer wrote something that goes against the whole feel of the original game, like some evil alien cloud secretly mind controlling other races like the zerg, now they are stuck writing the zerg in this way even though it was very clear that the zerg were originally supposed to be this locust like race, they eat and spread, and that's it.

Now these are just examples, but I can't see any benefit to going with the books somebody wrote other than it means you don't have to pay your writers anything to write more lore.

 

[brainslurper]

I stopped playing because the game became more about gear then skill. People wouldn't let me raid with them because my gear wasn't the correct tier, but on the few occasions when they did let me in I was the best or second best healer there (depending on if I was tank healing). I suppose the only real way to judge whether to let someone play is by their gear, but it just got boring.

 

[RJ 17]

So let me see if I got this straight. Blizzard is bad because they made you pay them for years of entertainment? To be fair $15 a month is a way cheaper hobby then anything else I can think of.

As for SC2... I can't say I was thrilled that they were releasing it in three installments but after playing it I also can say that it was worth the money I paid. Sure was a lot better then the last couple CoD games, and I look forward to the next two SC2 expansions.

Not to happy with the direction Diablo 3 is going though.

I never said I disliked paying Blizzard for the few years that I actually enjoyed the game. As I've said numerous times: it just got to the point where it seemed like I wasn't playing a game, I was doing a chore...a chore that I had to pay a monthly subscription in order to complete. It's the doldrums of a routine, plenty of people are able to keep up with that routine and if they enjoy it, good for them. But the routine of "Dailies, dailies, dailies, raid night, dailies, dailies, raid night, rinse and repeat" just got far too monotonous for me to justify continuing to pay to play WoW. It certainly didn't help that on the last server I was on, when I was already losing interest, a major drama storm struck the guild I was in and it disbanded. I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally didn't feel like signing up with another guild and meeting everyone and making nice with everyone again. So as for my WoW career, that was officially the last straw.

 

[hellflame]

they never fixed hunters in wow, their pvp ballance is a joke and i regard them as an all round evil corperation due to my hatred agasin't whoevers in charge of pvp ballance.

 

[Hakazaba]

They are still not as bad as Nintendo though.

 

[mcnally86]

although I love the Sc2 story, and think people are way too hard on it for no reason

There is a reason and you stated it. Some people violently oppose the fact that the story is fleshed out in other mediums. There are moments in cut scenes you feel like something private happened that you didn't understand because you didn't do your book report.

Other then that, Terran was my least favorite campaign in SC and BW. I imagine most people had a favorite race, assuming popularity is divided evenly (1/3 people favorite a given race) any SC game favoring one race offends more people then it pleases.

I myself like zerg the best. They got no screen time in the single player. I think I would have been happier if they added at least one level. Dont get me wrong the protoss levels were awesome, my favorite chain of levels in the game.

 

[Darkmantle]

although I love the Sc2 story, and think people are way too hard on it for no reason

There is a reason and you stated it. Some people violently oppose the fact that the story is fleshed out in other mediums. There are moments in cut scenes you feel like something private happened that you didn't understand because you didn't do your book report.

Other then that, Terran was my least favorite campaign in SC and BW. I imagine most people had a favorite race, assuming popularity is divided evenly (1/3 people favorite a given race) any SC game favoring one race offends more people then it pleases.

I myself like zerg the best. They got no screen time in the single player. I think I would have been happier if they added at least one level. Dont get me wrong the protoss levels were awesome, my favorite chain of levels in the game.

My favourite is protoss, and zeratul was my favourite character the toss section was my favourite too

 

[LetalisK]

I think the problem that me and many others has was that while Starcraft 1 has twenty some odd missions all of which directly furthered the story. On the other had Starcraft 2 only has about 1/3 story missions and 2/3 filler missions to pad out the game. If they had made a full game with very little filler mabey four or five missions that it would not have been so bad. But to divide your game into three parts and have the first one contain 2/3 filler is a load of shit.

Meh, best "filler" I've ever played, so I'm not complaining.

Blizzards expansions have always been the exact same price as a regular game. So Blizzard saying they are going to price them as expansions just means that they will be priced at $60.

Hm, didn't think of that. Where is this information? I've looked all over the internet and it's very hard to find the original MSRP for Blizzard games. For WoW, I can't find its original MSRP, but I do know all of its expansions started at $40. I've seen WC3 and TFT's original MSRP for $30 and $20 respectively, but that seems too cheap to have actually been their MSRP and on the flipside I've seen StarCraft's original MSRP as $50, which seems too expensive for the time. I have verified Brood War's original MSRP as $30 though.

 

[Naeras]

I read it all, and you're right.

I've quit WoW a bit after Cata, Blizzard was making everything so easy (to attract new players = more money!). The required skill to become an 'elite' was going away. You just needed to grind dailies over and over again, and in the end you had the best gear there was. This made the game so boring. No wonder they lost a lot of players.

But i am afraid Blizz will just keep on going until nobody wants to play their games anymore.

Being "elite" never required much skill, unless we're talking server first-kills or finishing first in an arena season. All it took was enough free time to get the gear/enchantments/potions/etc, combined with having half a brain.

 

[Agente L]

One way I found to keep WoW fresh is playing on RP servers.

Tired of running dungeons for phat loot or pvping? RP a. Take a week break from the actual game and focus on rping. Write down your character backstory, create a compelling story line to play with friends, etc. Tired of rping? Go play a bit of pve or pvp. That way, WoW lasts much longer. I have an wow account since 2010, and I still didn't reached level 85. My dwarf shaman is only level 81.

Also, about the three games in SC2, I also thought it was a bad move, but seeing how much gaming and how WoL was, I'm not as angry as I should be. The game was great, detailed, and lively. And it was translated and dubbed to my native language, which made it even more amazing, as I could hear Jim Raynor speak in my language.

Where's the fun in playing a game if you have to fucking plan and drag it out to make it last as long as possible? I mean really, are you playing it to have fun or are you playing it for the sake of playing? Why go through such lenghts to make it last as long as possible?

I think you missed the point of my post. I said that interleaving RP and other game mechanics is a great way to make your enjoyment increase, and to keep the game fresh. I don't want to go serious raiding or pvping (atleast not for now) because I don't feel like it. And since I'm not planning on doing long-term investiments (Raids, Arenas, Rated BGs) the end game shrinks dramatically. And I found RP as a way to keep the game alive.

While rping, I don't have to worry about keeping my DPS at 340242984294k or having over 9000 item level. And while I'm doing dungeon or questing, I don't have to worry about thinking over every sentence I speak, or thinking how my character would react.

I love rping, and WoW is by far one of the best games for it, due to its lore (Saying it's full of retcons is a fact, saying it sucks because the retcons is a opinion), which I enjoy very much, the big community for it (on the right servers) and the variety of RP available, with different classes and races. I also love tabletop RPG, but it's far harder to find a good and stable group to play it atleast once a month than it is to find a good RPing guild which makes weekly events in WoW.


I already got you hate WoW for some reason or another, but don't force down your opinions down other people throats.